Sad Day in Grayson Football!

Well, I hate to have to post this one, but we did lose last night. That was a tough game no doubt, we just never got a break. Those guys in Camden can play some football. I will give it to our guys though, it was not a lack of trying, because they played their hearts out.

The trip down: our van (two other coaches wives, myself and our 2 kids) left on Thursday afternoon around 4 - 4:30pm and headed out. I was talking back and forth to Michael to find out where the buses were. The buses left at 11:30am and went down to Dublin High School to do their Thursday walk through practice, then they ate there in Dublin, so that is where they were when I talked to him and we were only 40 miles outside of Dublin.

I just told him we would catch up, because we were truckin' on along pretty well and they were just getting loaded in the buses. Once we got onto I-16, I called again and we were only about 20 miles behind them. Then next thing you know, we all looked up and saw cop lights and buses pulled over so I went in behind them. The first bus of the Varsity kids had something wrong with a tire (Not a blow out, but smoking and loss of lubricant or something like that. Nothing fixable on the road). So the kids were so excited to get to see Daddy earlier than expected.

They switched all the players from the first bus to the last bus (which was the 9th graders that would not be playing anyhow) and we got back on the road. The bus that got left behind had to wait for them to send another bus down so they ended up 1 1/2 hours behind us. It was late and I felt so sorry for those coaches and kids having to sit and wait.

We got into our room at around 11:30pm. When we got to the hotel, they had pizza set up for everyone (at 11:00pm??), so we stood around there for just a few minutes and of course Brooke says, "Mommy, I want pizza". I got Logan's bed out and put him in it and Brooke had to sleep between me and Michael (not too bad this time) and we finally got to sleep.

None of the adults slept worth anything (a mixture of the beds and the anticipation of the game), but the kids seem to sleep well. Everyone's wake up call was 8am, so Michael was gone pretty much all day with things with the team and I took the kids down to my Jacksonville Pitney Bowes office to see some co-workers. We went out to eat with Yalis and got some seafood, which is just what I wanted. We had a great visit with her. Luckily Logan fell asleep on the way back to the hotel (about 30 minutes, if that, but at least it was something).

I stayed in the lobby with the two of them waiting on Halie's two boys to wake from their nap. All the other wives went shopping, not something I was going to attempt with both kids. The team went to the movies (another thing I decided not to attempt with the kids by myself with no naps to speak of). Once the Conn boys woke from their naps it was time for the team to come back and get ready to leave for Kingsland, GA for the game.

The game was to start @ 8pm since people having to drive so far. We had our section of the visitors stands packed out, which was incredible due to the distance. Our fans and parent's have been so loyal this year and wonderful to deal with! Camden roped off a large section of our stands for their fans too, and come to find out the Camden fans are known for speading out within the visitors section too for intimidation. They were horrible to deal with and all the cops on both sides started moving them out, so it got pretty hairy for a little while. We were definitely out of our element down there. Their school administration and cops were great though, I have to say. And for the most part, anyone other than the fans in the stands from Camden were great.

The game went on and we just could not get on top, we could not even score until the last quarter. We went out on the field afterwards and watched seniors just cry their eyes out, so it was hard to see that. The good thing is that no one, parents or fans, were putting blame on anyone. They knew that it was great to get this far and they played as well as they could.

Now, the fun part was coming home. All the ones that were leaving last night (mainly just some parent's of football players and coaches wives) waited around for the buses of players and coaches to get loaded up and we caravaned all the way home. We had got 2 Sheriff patrols from Gwinnett to escort us during the entire trip. So, one got in front, then the 3 buses, and all of us driving (a total of about 15 vehicles) and we took off. Since we took back roads the cops just blue lighted everyone through red lights and we kept on truckin'. We left at exactly 11:30pm from Camden and got home at 5:30am this morning.

Thank goodness, both kids slept all the way home since they did not have much of any kind of nap and we had gone full speed for 2 days. I ran each up to bed and they went right back to sleep. I was in bed by 5:40am and Michael was home within 5 minutes of that. I don't remember a minute past that, we were sound asleep. The kids and us slept until 11:30am this morning, which was so much better than I ever dreamed since they slept all the way home. Our day will be pretty much laid back and messed up with times now.

So another chapter of football comes to an end today and we can start planning on Christmas vacations and work around the house or anything else that gets put on hold during football season. What a wonderful season we have had and a great group of parents! Congratulations to the Grayson Rams for a job well done. I know we all wanted to go to the GA Dome, but we have some good years coming up too! I have lots of pictures from the beginning of the game as soon as I can get them downloaded. Sorry for the long blog, but I wanted to share our great experience!